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Reaching the Next Generation of Farmers

Posted on by Savannah Westbrock

Reaching the next generation of farmers is an increasing concern in agriculture marketing. As those in the world of ag are well aware, the average age of farmers is far higher than most industries, creating concerns about the future of global production. In North America, reports indicate the average age of all farmers to be between 57 and 60, with even the newcomers to the field largely over the age of 45. However, the latest USDA census shed light on a positive trend: over a quarter of new producers were below the age of 35. 

Encouragingly, younger generations are indicating an interest in careers in agriculture. The fastest growing age range for new farmers overlaps with older Millennials and, due to demand from the younger Gen Z population, public universities have steadily increased their offerings related to agriculture, food sciences and sustainability for the past 3 years. 

New Opportunities For Agriculture Marketers

For agriculture marketers, this presents a fresh audience who are engaging with emerging technologies, agribusiness resources, and the modernized tools needed to shape the future of their farms. Brands who adapt their marketing strategies to reach these digitally native individuals can establish significant value for the future of their brands. 

Creating content to reach the next generation of farmers is an exciting opportunity for marketers, but don’t assume everyone in this age group is reachable with a one-size-fits-all media strategy. Though they may be united as the next generation of farmers, the current batch of “under 35s” span two generations: Millennials and Gen Z. Despite being close-ish in age, Millennials and the college-aged Gen Zs use media very differently. Agriculture marketing strategies must reflect these differences using personalized, curated approaches to reach their maximum potential.

Speaking To Millennial Farmers

 You may still picture Millennials as young adults, but they now range from being in their late twenties to early forties. So when you picture a Millennial interested in ag, you should be picturing the “Millennial Farmer,” Zach Johnson, a 37-year old father of three who manages 2,600 acres and a popular YouTube account documenting farm life. Johnson and his fellow 30-somethings make up a group we would personify as the ‘Established Young Farmer’. 

They are an ideal group to reach with branded articles, invitations to industry events or webinars, and specific product and service promotions related to their farms. Though not as seasoned as their farming mentors, the Established Young Farmer is just that, established, so marketers can openly use detailed language and concrete examples of the benefits of their offerings without worrying about losing them. This audience is ideal for any advertiser wanting to highlight their offerings related to new technologies, developments in livestock medicine or crop treatments, farm finances, and farm management tools. 

Millennials have spent their entire lives adapting to new technology and are the highest educated generation to date. Many of these farmers are managing aspects of their operations that previous generations may have relied upon a business partner to handle. Additionally, this audience’s unique position of being new to the industry without being new to adulthood allows marketers the chance to speak to decision makers who are open to testing new brands and emerging technologies. 

Shift To Digital To Reach Millennial Farmers

Like their older counterparts, these Established Young Farmers are reachable via terrestrial media, but the most cost-efficient path to engagement will be tapping into the digital environments this generation is native to. They’re still active users of Facebook, but are also heavier users of newer channels like streaming audio and streaming video. Don’t forget, this is the generation who almost unanimously “cut the cord” in the 2010s, so connected TV is a better avenue to reach them than cable. There was a noted exception to this trend in rural areas as the financial barrier to dependable high-speed internet access played a key role in CTV use, but this is a decreasing concern in the 2020s as the pandemic accelerated this need.

In summary, the Millennial Established Young Farmers have a few years of experience under their belts, are open to new ideas for their farms, and are reachable with cost-efficient digital media. There’s little reason to not include them in your current marketing strategies to form a long-term relationship with the immediate next generation. For brands looking further into the future of farming, let’s discuss the Emerging Agriculturalists of Generation Z. 

Speaking To The Agriculture-Interested Gen Z

With the new farmers entering the ag workforce in their 30s and 40s, it’s not surprising to currently see little representation of Gen Z in the field. This generation spans individuals born from the late 90s through 2010, and currently owns the youth and young adult cohort of 18-24 year-olds.  Over half of Gen Zs with farm backgrounds plan to one day take over their family operations, while over 70% of Gen X farmers expect their Gen Z children to take over. 

While it’s true many Gen Zs will not enter the ag workforce whatsoever, it’s also important to consider the disciplines of study within Agtech, Biotech, and Climatology that were not available to previous generations. Knowing this group’s entryway to a career in agriculture may not be the farm, we’re calling this audience the ‘Emerging Agriculturalists’. 

The Emerging Agriculturalists are still deciding their futures after graduation. They’re in an ideal life stage to receive educational content and connect with industry professionals at events or online. Many are interested in tech-forward content and hearing professional testimonials or blogs to help them conceptualize the real world implications of emerging technologies. Interestingly, this generation has a more favorable opinion of GMOs and are less likely to sustain from animal agriculture compared to Millennials, so they may be a more receptive audience for thought leadership in these areas. 

Use Social And Video To Reach Gen Z Agriculturalists

Another key differentiator between Millennials and Gen Z’s is their social media habits. Despite its best efforts, Facebook is viewed by this group as a “Boomer social network made for old people.”  However, marketers can still take advantage of Meta’s broad reach to find Gen Z on Instagram, where they are more active.

 Video content on traditional channels, such as linear TV, may not reach Gen Z at all – they are primarily “cord-nevers,” and have spent their formative years with vertical video on social platforms like Snapchat and now, TikTok. YouTube and CTV are still viable channels for repurposing more traditional content, but marketers should embrace this generation’s preference for more authentic, influencer-style placements. Look to the hashtags #farmlife and content creators like @MommyFarmer for inspiration.  

One thing is true for both of these generations of future farmers: the digital landscape allows for many cost-efficient opportunities to serve them tailored messaging for a personal touch. Connect with a Coegi strategist to develop a curated plan to reach the next generation of farmers. 

How to Drive Job Applicants for Healthcare Recruiting Campaigns

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A hospital client tasked Coegi with developing a digital healthcare recruiting campaign to drive interest and qualified website traffic for open job positions. Using a combination of social and display tactics, we were able to generate a significant increase in website visits and drive new job applications from a niche audience. 

Highlights

1,496
LinkedIn “Apply Now” conversions

10,000
page views from Display

0.63%
Facebook CTR

Challenge

The ultimate goal was to drive maximal website traffic. But Coegi understood it was critical to ensure the visitors were qualified potential applicants. Due to restrictions on employment-based ad campaigns, the team was creative with data usage across platforms, especially Facebook. Additionally, the client was recruiting for multiple positions, each with different qualifications. This resulted in separate creatives and messaging for each job position, adding a layer of complexity to campaign execution. 

 

Solution

We identified three primary channels for this healthcare recruiting campaign: LinkedIn, Facebook, and programmatic display. 

LinkedIn:

Linkedin was chosen to reach the job-seeking audiences while they were searching. Plus, because they could use job title targeting to be confident the intended audience was being reached. This tactic led to the highest number of “apply now” conversions.

Results: 1,496 application form submissions

Display:

Display was chosen to drive site traffic. Data segments allowed the team to reach niche job titles relevant to the target audience. Using custom data segments allowed for granular job title targeting, while also reaching a larger number of likely users. We ran all job titles in one campaign. Each ad set was targeting a specific job field driving users to unique landing pages. 

Display Results: Nearly 10,000 recruitment page views

Facebook: 

With Facebook, we navigated targeting limitations since employment is a special ad category. This forced a more general targeting strategy focused more on consideration, driving scale for the campaign. Like display, this was primarily used to drive site traffic and make job seekers aware of open positions. 

Facebook Results: 0.63% CTR, 5,650 interview page views, 8,783 career page views

This cross-channel strategy allowed us to target niche job titles and drive high site traffic, despite limitations. Healthcare and pharma brands often defer to brand awareness campaigns due to restrictions in targeting sensitive audiences and compliance laws. However, this campaign showed how health-focused brands can shake that mold and achieve out of the box, lower-funnel goals, such as recruitment, using strategic digital media plans.

Navigating the World of Marketing for Crypto Brands

Posted on by Coegi

The growth in cryptocurrency’s popularity is undeniable. The global value of cryptocurrency is over 2.29T, more than the GDP of Canada or Italy. And crypto users are engaging for multiple reasons. Sure, there is the appeal from an investment and transactional standpoint, but part of it is certainly novelty and curiosity.

As crypto brands begin to think about capitalizing on this upward trajectory, consider how to tackle marketing in a way that is sustainable, effective, and innovative.

Think Beyond “Crypto Enthusiasts” When Targeting Consumers

It, of course, makes sense to target those who are already involved with crypto when introducing and/or growing your brand. However, these are not the only individuals you should be seeking to influence. It’s important to do your due diligence with research. There are the crypto curious “normie” audiences who maybe haven’t taken the leap to making their first investment, but just need a little education from the right brand to move forward. There are the heavy stock investors who could be seeking to diversify in times where stock portfolios are fluctuating heavily. Also, there are individuals who don’t necessarily care to use crypto to accumulate enormous wealth. Instead, they are looking for mechanisms like crypto to enable a future of financial freedom.

Conversely, sometimes you need the niche audiences that are only interested in one specific type of cryptocurrency, such as Ethereum. Regardless of the situation, it’s important to dive deep into each unique crypto brand, understand the value propositions of their products and services, and leverage research to explore creative audiences and contextual environments.

Finally, it’s important to align creative messaging with the audience journey. You should talk to someone who is crypto-savvy much differently than someone simply looking for financial freedom. One is likely to have a quicker road to conversion while the other requires more time for awareness and education.

Lean Into Digital – But Understand The Limitations

Digital advertising offers brands the ability to reach the target consumers at scale, gathering data that allows for key brand learnings and the ability to tie exposure to action. However, with many ‘emerging’ industries, there are some platforms that either restrict or prohibit any advertising regarding cryptocurrency. Be sure to do due diligence on all platforms under consideration to understand which hoops you have to jump through.

Some programmatic channels we’ve found to be effective for marketing cryptocurrency brands include: display, Twitter, LinkedIn, Search, Facebook and Instagram. We have also seen a lot of value in endemic placements on major crypto-focused publications. There is high contextual relevance and also perceived trust running alongside other crypto-related content.

Seek Buying Efficiency – But Also Enjoy Making A Splash At The Right Time In The Right Place

Implementing an optimization strategy based on testing and learning will naturally allow cryptocurrency marketers to find ways to drive improved efficiency and effectiveness. It allows you to find the right channels, audiences, and creatives to drive increased brand lift, lower cost per action, and build overall brand growth.

Yes, you can accomplish this by combining proper campaign analysis using advanced measurement and analytics insights. However, incorporating third-party data, such as financial indicators, can be an innovative way to know when to ramp up spend and make a greater impact. Maybe a downturn in the NASDAQ means it’s time for a high value placement on Forbes? Or even a big billboard in Times Square?

The world of cryptocurrency is exciting and challenging in the best way. Marketers working with these emerging fintech brands should have a mindset of curiosity and determination to drive the strongest results.

Still curious? For more insights, view our webinar on-demand: The Metaverse, Crypto, & NFTs: What Marketers Need to Know.

How to Prove ROI for CPG Brands Using Loyalty & Purchase Data

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

Bahlsen partnered with Coegi to relaunch their brand across six geographic locations in the United States. Partnering with Catalina, a consumer data company, the teams were able to target, measure, and optimize CTV and display campaign results in real-time across multiple platforms. This resulted in significant incremental sales lift and an increase in new buyers and repeat purchases. 

Highlights

28%
Sales Lift

38%
New Buyer Base

8%
New Buyer Repeat Purchase Rate

Challenge

Measuring marketing campaign ROI can be complicated for CPG brands. Data from online and in-store sales combined with the cyclical purchasing habits of consumers can significantly blur the lines of marketing attribution. It can also handicap a marketer’s ability to make informed optimizations throughout. Without these insights, a true understanding of campaign success can be out of reach for most brands without the assistance of advanced measurement. 

 

Solution

We knew the key to success for Bahlsen was gathering real-time sales data to inform quick optimizations and gain feedback on sales lift. It was also important to reach audiences across multiple channels to facilitate consideration and keep the brand top of mind. 

We looked to Catalina to assist with this challenge. With almost 40 years of consumer data and one of the largest in-store media networks, Catalina has built an activation, measurement and attribution model. This allows CPG marketers to build and target hyper-focused niche audience groups across multiple channels. 

Using Catalina’s measurement technology and data, we developed and activated highly segmented first-party data lists across CTV and digital display platforms. These audiences consisted of current customers, lost/lagged customers and potential consumers. These rich targeting segments were more likely to engage with and purchase the product than the broader U.S. population. This set the foundation for campaign success. 

However, the real key to driving results for our client was in the cross-channel targeting of these lists to keep the brand top of mind at point of purchase. To do this, our team activated CTV and display campaigns using Catalina’s in-house network. Simultaneously, we were targeting the same audiences on Facebook and Instagram. 

The seven week campaign resulted in an incremental sales lift of 28% (16% benchmark) with a 38% increase in new buyer base and a repeat purchase rate of 8% in those new users. For CPG brands looking to prove advertising ROI, prioritize collecting high quality customer sales data to accurately track and measure sales lift throughout campaigns. To amplify results, use segmented audience lists with a cross-channel strategy to increase reach and frequency among key consumer groups.

The B2B Digital Marketing Handbook

Posted on by Coegi

The digital marketing revolution is sweeping the world – and B2B advertising is no exception. Buyers and sellers are shifting to digital channels for conducting networking, brand building, product demos and training, and even transactions. 

Using this handbook, you can adapt your brand to the evolving marketplace by using the most effective channels, targeting methods and measurement strategies for reaching modern B2B buyers. In this guide you’ll learn the answers to key marketing questions, such as: 

How can you efficiently target B2B audiences?

B2B’s emphasis on precisely targeting niche audience groups will be affected by third-party cookie deprecation in 2023. Find a balance between leveraging non-cookie based second and third-party prospecting audiences and creating digital touch points with your CRM contacts to reach the buyers that matter most for your brand. 

What are the best channels for B2B brands to advertise on?

Some of the most effective and fastest growing digital channels we recommend for B2B marketers include social, display, search, connected TV and audio. Read the full guide or continue scrolling to learn how to activate each channel most effectively and achieve business results. 

How to measure the results of B2B digital marketing? 

Track the cross-channel customer journey via both sales and marketing touchpoints. Accurate measurement provides learnings to optimize the process, making the sales funnel shorter and ad spend more effective. A common misstep marketers make is focusing solely on attribution and sourcing metrics. This is an oversimplification that blinds true insights and efficiency. To more accurately track a complex buying cycle, we outline a five step measurement process to define omni-channel success.

Future-Proof Your B2B Digital Marketing Strategy

Digital-first marketing is the way forward for B2B brands. This handbook provides a deeper understanding of the high level trends you need to know to stay ahead of the competitive curve and capitalize on untapped marketing space.

Download the B2B Digital Marketing Handbook now to level up your strategy. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a discovery call.

Adapting to the Digital-First B2B Marketplace 

B2B digital ad spending is growing rapidly, and traditional spend is not expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Digital advertising will be pivotal for B2B brands moving forward as buyers become more accustomed to a digital-first marketplace. 

Here’s three simple shifts that can have a major impact:

Follow B2C’s Example

Leading consumer brands diversify and digitize their marketing mix to create robust omni-channel strategies. This is highly successful for meeting customers wherever they are online. Personalizing content is now an expectation for B2B digital marketing.

Lead with Data

Use CRM data to identify customers with the greatest lifetime value based on potential or historical spend to optimize your marketing expenditure. Then, create AI-based lookalike models to find new consumers who behave like your best customers.

Lean into Video 

B2B buyers engage heavily with video content across the consumer journey, perhaps to the surprise of the more traditional B2B marketers. Product demos, tutorials, webinars, and culture-based content all have an impact on engaging and informing buyers. 

Digital Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

Companies are placing the highest investment for their account based marketing (ABM)  strategies into digital. The majority of spend occurs on social media, paid search, and e-newsletters. However, other channels such as display, CTV and audio are gaining more share of wallet each year. 

A barrier to successful ABM is the ability to efficiently and effectively personalize marketing at scale. This is addressable by using AI technology to segment and serve account-based ads on a programmatic level. There are also various methods for account-based targeting on platforms such as LinkedIn. 

Targeting B2B Audiences with Digital Marketing 

Impact of the Cookieless Future

It is important to maintain a forward looking mentality for lead generation. The cookieless future will affect targeting niche audience groups, an emphasis of B2B marketers. Brands should explore emerging identity-solution technologies while also prioritizing first-party data collection. Finding a balance between leveraging third-party prospecting audiences and your CRM contacts can define your success. 

Know Your B2B Audience

Use consumer intelligence tools to create highly specific audience personas. Understand where their media consumption lies so you can reach them in both endemic and non-endemic environments. Focusing on intentionally targeting high quality leads will achieve a much higher return on investment than a mass market approach. 

Job Title Targeting

Reach industry professionals based on the NAICS listed industries in which they work. Target using ABM, job title, job function and seniority targeting, firmographic, and intent signals. Further refine targeting through Boolean logic to reach specific B2B audiences.

IP Targeting

IP targeting enables brands to identify qualified households and businesses based on IP address. You can also create look-alike models using audience lists to expand reach. This allows you to target specific business locations and reach employees while they are at work. 

Geo-Targeting

Geo-fencing powers hyper-local mobile targeting in specific locations of your target accounts. Geo-targeting industry conferences can be effective to reach a high concentration of relevant professionals with greater efficiency. 

Retargeting

Website retargeting allows you to reach warm leads who have recently visited your site with sequential messaging. Conversion pixels can be particularly useful for B2B brands to place on key actions, like PDF downloads or form submissions. However, the deprecation of third-party cookies will inevitably impact this – so avoid overreliance on this tactic.

Key Channels for B2B Digital Marketing 

Brands need to enable digital transaction and communication across all stages of the lead funnel. Here are some of the most effective and fastest growing digital channels we recommend for B2B marketers:

Social Media

While social media is extremely useful in personifying the brand, it also goes a long way in driving new prospects and increasing customer lifetime value. Advertising and engaging content initiates that process. The most commonly used and highly effective social media for B2B brands is LinkedIn. 

LinkedIn has millions of active professionals with detailed targeting capabilities for reaching a business-focused target audience. On LinkedIn, individuals are more likely to be engaged in business-related activities, which is a great fit for B2B initiatives. 

Connected TV

Brands are realizing the value of video in driving awareness through storytelling, which is just as important to B2B as it is to B2C. CTV ads provide maximum impact, reaching users on the largest screen in their home against premium content. With advanced audience targeting across CTV devices brands can re-engage existing customers and reach new audiences. 

Programmatic Audio 

Programmatic audio is a growing sector for B2B. Placements in relevant podcasts or streaming platforms can reach very specific audiences. B2B spend in this category is currently lagging, but we expect growth in the next several years. By capitalizing on this tactic now, your brand has the potential to capture attention ahead of more widespread adoption 

Digital-Out-of-Home

Digital Out of Home (DOOH) refers to the purchasing of digital screens in public. With DOOH, you can purchase inventory nearly in real-time versus traditional methods that take multiple weeks and contracts. Digital screens place ads in locations where you know key decision makers are likely to be.

Display

4 out of 10 US B2B marketers said they plan to increase their display budget in 2022. Use display to drive consideration and lead generation through specific CTAs. Segment audiences based on attributes and behaviors. Then, connect with them on relevant sites and apps using a combined approach of contextual and audience targeting. 

Native

Native ads match readers’ interests with curated content and generate higher brand engagement. This is especially useful for targeting B2B buyers when they are consuming contextually relevant content. Plus, it can position your content as an additional resource to the topic they are reading about without being intrusive.

Paid Search (PPC)

To show up in highly competitive search rankings, combine organic and paid search strategies for maximum impact and profitability. When B2B buyers begin searching for information, they will likely land on a top ranking site on Google. So, it is critical to bid against the most effective keywords to place your brand at the forefront of the consumer journey. 

Measuring B2B Digital Marketing Results 

Tracking the cross-channel journey across sales and digital marketing touchpoints is essential. Accurate measurement provides learnings to optimize the process, making the sales funnel shorter and ad spend more effective. 

Focusing on sourcing metrics is an oversimplification that blinds true insights and efficiency. To more accurately track a complex buying cycle, we recommend creating a custom measurement framework. 

Use this 5-step process to define omni-channel success for your B2B marketing: 

1) Align Sales and Marketing Teams

First, sales and marketing must have alignment. The following steps of identifying business OKRs should be collaborative to meet shared goals and understand the impact of one another’s efforts.

2) Identify Desired Business Outcomes

Secondly, establish and understand your core business goals. This creates a roadmap that empowers marketing and sales teams to make informed decisions. From there, you can begin to build a strategic marketing plan to move the needle for the brand

3) Determine KPIs to Indicate Success

Begin to identify the signals that trigger audience actions and bring you closer to your goals. Next, determine how each touchpoint leads the customer to the point of purchase and how you can track directional success. Move beyond typical metrics that simply measure media efficiency and see what is truly impacting your business results.

4) Evaluate Incrementality

As you nurture leads and drive new business, evaluate the incremental effects of your marketing strategy. To test different tactics or channels, establish a performance baseline and then adjust one variable at time to see the impact. This will give you more accurate insight than attribution or last-click models. 

5) Create a Cycle of Test and Learn

Now it is important to identify the key questions we can answer to improve upon results in the next campaign. Create a learning agenda to determine which components are driving the best outcomes so you can adjust and optimize in the future. 

Apply these core principles and watch your business transform. Using this approach will allow you to track and communicate meaningful data about your buyers, no matter how complex your channel strategy may be. 

Key Takeaways for B2B Marketers

Agility will be key in 2022 and B2B brands have an exciting opportunity to leverage the digital marketplace to their advantage. Using this guide, you should be able to better understand how to adapt your brand’s strategies for long-term success.

With a digital-first approach, audience personalization, and strategic targeting, you can reach your highest potential buyers with maximum efficiency. 


As you continue to navigate these challenges, Coegi is here to be your guide!

Reach out to us at info@coegipartners.com for a strategy consultation to enhance your customers’ digital journey.

Increase B2B Conversions Using Account Based Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

Account based marketing (ABM) is a focused strategy that blends sales and marketing efforts to reach high potential B2B customers. However, many brands struggle with achieving the level of personalization and automation needed for effective ABM at scale. Thankfully, there is a solution: programmatic ABM. Using automated buying tactics, brands can serve targeted ads to thousands of highly segmented B2B consumers within target organizations using technology and data for personalization. 

Why Account Based Marketing?

B2B marketing has historically emphasized quantity of leads generated first (Marketing Qualified Leads), with quality to follow (Sales Qualified Leads). Unfortunately, this method has led to 79% of leads never becoming customers, not to mention wasted media dollars. The account-based approach instead focuses on decision makers in target companies rather than mass outreach. By doing this prequalification, the sales funnel becomes shorter and every customer touchpoint is more intentional and personalized. This is why 77% of marketers believe ABM is their top driver of sales and marketing success. 

Zeroing In On the Target

Emarketer data shows that one key barrier to successful ABM is the inability to efficiently and effectively personalize marketing at scale.  We know this is a critical issue to solve as, “40% of company executives in e-commerce report that personalization directly affects their sales and company revenues.” Once you have your ideal customer profile nailed down, how can you make sure you are reaching these individuals?  Can you reach them at scale, with personalization and within your given budget? Here’s where programmatic activation comes in.

Programmatic Account Based Marketing: Powered By Technology

Programmatic advertising automates the ad buying process. Just because you are targeting individual business accounts, you don’t have to have massive teams calling or emailing accounts one by one to succeed. With proper campaign segmentation, you can tailor ads to feel highly specific and relevant to individuals within these companies.

AI-powered creative learning takes this one step further by determining which combination of imagery and copy will be most effective for different audience segments and adjusting in real time. Programmatic and AI also allow agility and flexibility across channels. You can take a social ad and run it on digital or test a top performing display video on CTV – all while being confident your media spend is serving ads to real, qualified decision makers. 

 

ABM Investment Across Digital Media Channels

Activation: First-Party First

When available, start by leveraging existing CRM data. Activate against this high value pool of leads who have already shared their information with you via content downloads, newsletter sign-ups, or other acquisition activities. Carefully segment these individuals so you can serve highly relevant and personalized ads based on their industry, level of seniority, interests, geography, etc.

  • Work with a programmatic agency to activate 1PD segments across various digital channels and media publishers.
  • Track user behavior and data trends
  • Use AI tools to create lookalike audiences to expand the targeting pool

Expand and Refine Your Ideal ABM Customer

To expand further, strategically incorporate third party data. Various data partners can be tapped to reach decision makers across digital channels. Keep in mind that with third party data in particular, it is important to have a smart targeting strategy. 

Start by refining your audience. Yes, you want to achieve scale and pack the lead funnel for your sales force, but the way to do that effectively and efficiently is by ensuring you understand what the ideal customer looks like. Your cost per lead may be higher when you narrow the targeting parameters, but you can expect a greater return by reaching audiences with the highest potential lifetime value and reducing wasted hours sifting through unqualified leads.

Layer your targeting with firmographic, job title, and seniority parameters that indicate a high potential account. Look at your best customers  – what do they have in common? Segment your target personas into specific buckets so you can tailor your creative and messaging accordingly – adding the personalization now expected by B2B buyers.

Some targeting tactics for B2B accounts to consider are: 

  • Intent targeting to identify individuals and organizations who are actively searching for a particular topic or solution
  • NAICS job title targeting to reach specific job titles or organizations 
  • IP/Geo-Targeting to target specific business locations or industry events
  • Social targeting by skill/title/industry/location across platforms

Using programmatic activation with a digital partner allows brands to reach these highly sought after audiences with efficiency of both budget and time. 

B2B Channel Strategy: Time To Diversify?

Companies are placing the highest investment for their ABM strategies into digital, with the majority of spend occurring on social media, paid search and e-newsletters. These are all key ways to reach buyers, however, other channels such as programmatic display, CTV and audio are gaining more share of wallet year over year. Consider some of these more untapped spaces to allow your brand voice to be heard without competing with the noise. 

When choosing your channel strategy, don’t put all your efforts into one high-performing channel, such as LinkedIn. Instead, activate ads across a variety of channels based on the media consumption habits of your target audience and other behavioral insights. Use data-informed programmatic placements to meet the audience wherever they are active online.

To determine the best channel mix, it’s critical to build a cycle of testing and learning into your measurement strategy. This enables ongoing learning and optimization to improve the lead nurturing process by identifying what is working and what isn’t. Ask questions and test various tactics to find answers so your brand avoids stagnancy and reduced efficiency in the sales cycle.

Key Takeaways

  • Account based marketing doesn’t have to be tedious. Taking a programmatic approach enables efficiency and scale for brands with large target account pools.
  • Refine targeting criteria and segment key audience groups to personalize creative accordingly. 
  • Capitalize on your first party data, then expand reach with high quality third party data to reach verified decision makers.
  • B2B brands can benefit from an omni-channel media approach and considering non-traditional B2B media placements

Start reaching hundreds to thousands of B2B leads today by working with Coegi to build a programmatic ABM strategy. Download our guide to B2B Marketing to learn more. 

B2B Marketing Guide
Download the Complete B2B Marketing Guide

Digital Guide to Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

Healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing is a complex landscape. A long-standing emphasis on in-person rep sales and difficult to navigate privacy laws have made the industry slower to adopt new marketing technologies and trends relative to other industries.

Coegi created this guide to help healthcare and pharma marketers feel empowered to break the mold of antiquated marketing practices.

Creating A Clear Digital Roadmap For Your Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing Strategy

This playbook aims to debunk the uncertainty surrounding health and pharma marketing. We outline best practices and provide a clear roadmap for your healthcare brand to create best-in-class marketing strategies. 

What You’ll Learn: 

  • How to leverage key trends affecting the industry
  • Targeting methods for reaching patients and HCPs
  • Most effective channels and strategic tactics for health advertising
  • How to set KPIs, measure campaign results, and impact your bottom line 
  • What steps to take to ensure compliant advertising
  • Best practices to improve healthcare marketing strategies

Why Digital Marketing Is Critical For Healthcare Advertisers

The healthcare industry as a whole is pivoting towards data-driven strategies. Events, provider education, and patient treatment itself have now shifted from in-person to blended online channels. Omni-channel advertising strategies work in tandem with consumer preferences moving towards digital treatment options such as tele-health to supplement more traditional healthcare. 

Ready To Level Up Your Healthcare And Pharmaceutical Marketing?

Download the Digital Guide to Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing now. If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to contact us to set up a discovery call.

A Disrupted Ecosystem Leads to New Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing Opportunities

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated a large shift toward digital technologies in the healthcare landscape. For example, the acceptance of telehealth practice rose to 71% post-pandemic, despite very low adoption prior. As AI tools and telemedicine create efficiencies and digitize patient and healthcare provider communications, marketing efforts need to follow a similar trajectory. 

Similarly, visitation restrictions forced greater reliance on marketing channels rather than one-to-one sales meetings. This provides a massive opportunity for healthcare and pharma marketers to adapt and create a competitive advantage.  

How to Build Successful Patient Relationships

Patient-centric healthcare and pharmaceutical brands must gain loyalty through consumer relationships. Loyalty is at a historic low while openness to change and preference for convenience are soaring. 62% of consumers expected their preferred brand for healthcare to change post-pandemic. Additionally, 80% of patients said they’d switch providers solely for “convenience factors”. 

Marketing strategies must be customer-centric to capture loyalty. In today’s healthcare ecosystem, that requires leaning into omnichannel, digital strategies and leading with empathy. 

Patient Targeting Strategies for Health & Pharma Brands 

Despite the challenge of compliance and data privacy laws, brands still have a variety of ways to target patients by using first and third-party data as well as machine learning to identify and segment consumers who are receptive to healthcare advertising or are actively researching treatment options.

Local & Geo-Targeting

Hospital systems and healthcare practices should lean heavily into local targeting to reach their core audiences. These campaigns can drive location visits, but should also increase awareness and education. 1 in 4 people surveyed said they do not know enough about local health systems to make an informed choice. 

With data partners, pharmaceutical brands can target programmatic buys to specific zip codes that over-index for a particular condition. Using anonymous provider prescription data, data can be matched to zip codes with the highest lift in specific prescriptions. You can even map it to these households via IP addresses. This enables omnichannel online targeting to reach healthcare consumers through display, video, native, and social media channels.

Condition-Based Targeting

Use third-party data providers to access unique healthcare segments. This anonymous data is not subject to some of the strict HIPAA guidelines, as it cannot be tied to PII. This allows you to reach your relevant audience at scale without media waste. 

Interest Group Targeting

Interest targeting is a great way to reach patients as well as families and caregivers who are also interested in a specific condition or topic. This expands reach to the key decision-makers in the healthcare process. Data providers often define “interest” by what content consumers are reading online. 

Retargeting

By placing small pieces of code on a website, known as pixels, brands can retarget website visitors with programmatic ads. You can also build lookalike audiences to expand the retargeting pool. In instances where the topic or condition is considered sensitive, lean on the other tactics above to reach your key audiences.

Key Channels for Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketers to Reach Patient Audiences

Local and Paid Search

Search engine is often the first touchpoint in the patient journey as they begin researching a symptom or diagnosis. Establish your brand as a resource with relevant, helpful content through both paid and organic search. 

Local search is impactful when patients are looking for a nearby healthcare location. Providers should have mobile-optimized websites, complete Google business profiles, customer reviews, and relevant content for local optimization. 

Social Media

Use the power of social media to build brand trust and authenticity. These platforms are a great way to reach patients in a more personal environment where they are active daily. 

Most social platforms offer demographic, interest and behavioral targeting parameters. There is also an emerging trend of HCPs becoming popular creators on channels like YouTube, Twitter and TikTok. This organic influencer content can be highly effective, especially if you amplify it through paid social. 

Programmatic Display 

Today, patients of all ages are consuming media digitally and using mobile devices to find healthcare information. In 2020, display was the fastest-growing format for healthcare and pharma ad spend. Mobile optimization is a key adaptation for advertisers moving forward. Over 80% of smartphone-using patients use them to identify or interact with physicians. 

Contextual display targeting places ads next to relevant, trustworthy content when consumers are in the appropriate mindset. This can be done with keyword matching for specific web content or by running PMPs on specific healthcare publications.

Native Ads

Native ads match readers’ interests with relevant content and generate higher brand engagement. You can repurpose high-performing social ad content and target these ads to the audience segments of the campaign. Match these ads with contextually relevant articles to align with health content that would demonstrate how your brand or facility could best serve that individual. 

Programmatic Video

Video Ads capture user attention on sites or social media channels with engaging motion and sound based messaging. Use quality video to: 

  • Show brand personality and bring messaging to life
  • Show your product/service in action
  • Optimize for mobile placements

Connected TV

Television streaming times are soaring. This is especially true for the 55+ age range, a core healthcare demographic, who also make up the highest proportion of CTV viewers. 

The high-impact video content and addressability of CTV ensure ads reach relevant audiences. Using specific healthcare patient and provider audiences on CTV buys reaches high-value, addressable segments. Cross-channel integration platforms can ensure you reach the right audience with the appropriate frequency, thus optimizing omnichannel strategies.

 “CTV is an untapped space eliminating barriers from a cost-to-market perspective. TV is now an accessible market for pharmaceutical players.”

Colin Duft, Coegi Account Strategy Director

Measuring Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing Campaign Results

Using Full-Funnel Media Metrics

To measure campaign performance, it’s critical to understand how all your KPIs work together. We start by building a custom measurement framework factoring in multiple KPIs correlated to core business goals. Think outside the box of typical stats such as CTR, CPM and CPC to find more meaningful ways to track and attribute success. 

When media metrics do not answer your business questions, consider adding advanced measurement tactics. These data points will provide a more robust view of overall performance and marketing’s impact on your true business goals. 

Advanced Measurement Tactics for Healthcare Brands 

Healthcare brands with physical locations may find it difficult to measure the effects of digital marketing on in-person traffic. Medical device and pharmaceutical brands can likewise struggle to measure the results of in-person sales teams plus both on and offline marketing. In these instances, advanced measurement studies can help provide answers and display incremental lift in brand awareness, sales, or traffic. 

  • Foot traffic lift studies can be highly informative for hospitals or retail health brands. They provide online to offline attribution for campaigns aiming to drive consumers into physical locations. They use mobile location data to quantify the impact of media campaigns on incremental increase in visitation.
  • Brand lift studies can be effective for pharmaceutical brands to measure KPIs such as brand favorability, brand affinity, or ad recall. These can gauge success for omnichannel campaigns on branding goals.

Starting a Conversation with HCPs: Strategic Targeting, Channels & Measurement

Ad Targeting for Healthcare Providers 

Healthcare providers are relatively easier to target than patient segments. There is publicly available information and fewer privacy restrictions. However, there are occasionally some challenges with achieving scale as well as higher costs. Regardless, brands can reach HCPs across the wide range of content they consume to increase opportunities for engagement.

ID-Based Targeting

National Provider IDs are personal identifiers for specific healthcare providers including their practice location and specialty. Utilizing this data set via demand-side platforms allows for compliant, 1:1 HCP targeting across multiple channels and devices. 

Geo-Targeting

Brands can also use NPI numbers to target relevant practice locations for particular physicians or specialties. By targeting a geo-radius around POC locations with high volumes of particular diagnoses or treatment types, you can remain compliant while also reaching your target audience.

Retargeting

Re-engage previous HCP website visitors with highly relevant creative. This tactic helps build consideration, with the ultimate intent to continue engaging based on prior actions. 

Contextual Targeting

Contextual targeting tools can look at categories, keywords, and tags on web pages to deliver highly relevant programmatic content. At Coegi, we map these to the National Library of Medicine MeSH Taxonomy to ensure the most relevant terminology is applied to our digital media. 

Rx and Dx Targeting

Through data partnerships, brands can target NPI numbers of providers who prescribe certain prescription codes. Likewise, brands can target by diagnosis using ICD-10 codes to find their core provider audience. 

Key Digital Marketing Channels to Reach Healthcare Providers 

Endemic Display 

Reach healthcare providers on the key sites they visit for the latest trends and best practices in their field. These endemic sites are a more premium placement due to higher prices and lower supply. 

HCP Network: Doximity

Doximity is the leading social networking site specifically for healthcare providers. There are various ad placement options including sponsored content or in-feed ads. This can be a particularly helpful channel for new or emerging brands. It’s a great tool to educate and inform physicians about a new product offering. 

Paid Social 

Social media advertising helps reach HCPs outside of their professional environment. Use data providers to access ailment clusters and physician databases available for targeting on social and search. 

Programmatic Display

Display is the fastest-growing ad format in healthcare and pharma. Programmatic ads allow healthcare marketers to promote relevant information to HCPs outside the limitations of endemic websites. Also, banner display ads provide an easy format to drive traffic to specific website landing pages.

Paid Search

Similar to patients, practitioners also rely heavily on online resources to find new techniques, products, and information relevant to their practice. Outside of medical journal websites, providers prefer to receive communication from companies via search engines. 

Measuring HCP Marketing Campaign Results

At Coegi, we firmly believe all campaign spend can be accurately measured. When advertising to HCPs, the one-to-one addressability of some tactics allows for clearly traceable marketing ROI. However, other tactics can have less direct attribution toward objectives.  

In these instances, advanced measurement studies can help provide answers, explore correlations, and display incremental lift in metrics such as brand awareness, brand affinity and sales lift. 

Advanced Measurement Tactics

Brand lift studies can gauge success for omnichannel campaigns on brand-based goals. Awareness surveys with key practitioner groups can inform how a brand is perceived and the level of recognition or ad recall achieved within a target audience. 

Ready to level up your healthcare advertising? Schedule a discovery call with our business strategy team to get started today.

Driving Leads Through Consumer Education for Finance Brands

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

Coegi partnered with a financial services brand to develop an education-based approach to lead generation using downloadable guides for home buying, auto financing and growing a business.

Highlights

240,227
Impressions

0.079%
Conversion Rate

Challenge

Making the decision to apply for an auto loan, mortgage, or even open a new checking account requires a significant lift on the consumer in terms of research and compiling information. Many institutions lean towards offering financial incentives for opening an account or emphasizing low interest rates. 

While offers such as receiving $200 for refinancing or opening an account can act as a compelling call-to-action, the consumer needs to be educated on the process ahead of receiving this messaging for it to be effective. Offering monetary incentives to an uneducated audience can lead to abandoned applications and a higher cost per lead. Educating your target audience with branded collateral positions your brand as an industry thought leader. This also builds trust with your audience and leads to greater conversion activity, and ultimately higher customer lifetime value. 

Solution

This financial services client regularly offers e-books on various financial topics. They observed the benefits of this educational approach to campaign messaging. This client promoted guides on home buying, auto financing, and growing a business. Coegi adjusted their target audience based on the topics to ensure relevancy. 

The campaign uncovered that paid ads related to e-book downloads outperformed campaigns focused on monetary promotions. In Q4 2021, their Fall Homebuyers ad was given a quality ranking by Facebook and served more frequently than its counterparts. Users were 125% more likely to download the guide and request more information compared to messaging offering a discount. This campaign positioned the client as an expert in their industry and built trust among their target audience. 

Messaging Homebuyer Guide Closing Cost Discount
Impressions 240,227 14,417
Conversions 190 5
Conversion Rate .079% .035%

Education-based advertising is often viewed as an upper funnel marketing tactic utilized to build awareness and inform potential users. However, this campaign showcased the down-funnel impact educational materials can have on conversions. Our client was able to use educational guidebooks to empower their customers when making financial decisions. It was effective in building trust among the core audience and leading them to request more information.  Brands in the financial services sector should prioritize educational materials to create trusting consumer relationships and efficiently nurture leads.

Using Non-Media Data for Agile Tourism Marketing

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

Coegi collaborated with sister agencies, RADaR Analytics and True Media, to create a proprietary tool that allowed our tourism client to shift marketing dollars in real-time based on COVID-19 infection rates and consumer reception to travel. This offered our client a unique data set to inform marketing decisions – maximizing their dollars and promoting safe travel.

Highlights

124MM
Impressions

3%
Lift in New Website Visitors

20%
Lift in Time Spent on Site

Challenge

COVID-19 had a substantial impact on the travel and tourism industry, including one of Coegi’s tourism marketing clients. Spring and summer, historically their largest promotional period, came to a rapid halt as COVID-19 rapidly spread in 2020.

The tourism client’s ongoing objective is to support the travel and tourism industry throughout the state. However, as a government-funded organization, they also had to avoid promoting unsafe travel that could contribute to the spread of COVID-19. As a result, they tasked our team with developing a targeting strategy that continued to grow the industry in a responsible and innovative way.

Solution

We collaborated to create a proprietary tool that responded in real-time to both the COVID-19 pandemic and consumer interest in travel to allow for effective decision making and dynamic campaign adjustments. The end result was the COVID-19 Scoring Model. This model crossed weekly CDC level data regarding COVID-19 (case levels, 7 day rolling averages, death rates) with real-time interest indicators (Google trends data, website activity, on-site conversions). This gave each county in the state a score from 1-4 that indicated the level of opportunity in each market. 

Using this tool, we had a unique data set to inform decisions regarding geotargeting, messaging, and frequency to ensure the strategy aligned with likelihood of travel as well as safety. Coegi and our traditional media sister agency, True Media, collaborated to automate information collection and efficiently apply it to our digital media buys.

We were able to continue our omnichannel approach and expand awareness against a general traveler audience, as well as passion audiences based on preferred activities in the state. We also placed location data on top of our persona targeting in lower-funnel campaigns to ensure we were not reaching users who were strictly isolating.

Despite these challenges, we were able to drive strong results for our clients in the second half of 2020, fluidly shifting audience, geographic, and messaging strategy as data became available. Our campaigns cumulatively delivered over 124 million impressions, 61% above initial projections. We were also able to achieve a 3% increase in new website visitors and a 20% increase in time spent on site. 

Driving Marketing Results for Cryptocurrency Brands

Posted on by Coegi

The Brief

A cryptocurrency brand challenged Coegi and our partner, Wachsman, a communications-based strategy consultancy, to drive segmented audiences to register for an online event. Primary KPIs were event site visitations, measured on-site clicks, and ticket purchases. The main challenge was to identify and capitalize on the appropriate social media platforms to align with the brand’s niche audience segments.

Highlights

4,720
Site Views

.96%
Click Through Rate

757,279
Impressions

Challenge

Emerging fintech brands, especially those in the crypto space, face unique challenges not commonly found in the traditional finance sector. There are ever-changing societal, economical, and psychographic trends along with advertising regulations. Fintechs can often struggle with not only identifying and garnering the interest of niche customer segments, but also in harnessing the power of digital advertising.

Solution

Due to digital advertising restrictions set on crypto brands by a variety of social media platforms, Coegi and Wachsman were not immediately able to leverage the platform most widely used by the brand’s audience. Through internal research and creative strategy, we were able to narrow down to Facebook and Instagram – with Reddit as an added opportunity for topic-based targeting. With Facebook and Instagram, we leveraged interest targeting, retargeting, and look-a-like audiences. Each targeted ad was backed up by months of research and brand exercises completed by the Wachsman team, and supported by Coegi.

The campaign performed above average, concluding with 4,720 site views and a .96% CTR, compared to our .3% industry benchmark. In addition to strong social media ad engagement, the target audience proved further interest in the brand. The site experienced 191 on-site action clicks. 183 of those clicks were attributed to the “Get Tickets” button denoted on the social media ads. This was achieved while maintaining an average CPM of under $4 and CPC under $3.

During the campaign, the addition of a website retargeting and look-a-like audience improved the overall performance. We drove a CTR 41% above the campaign average and the highest on-site conversion rate at .028%.

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